A Not So Ordinary Teenager's Troubles
by solar-eclipse-12
Summary: Wendy has been trying to forget about Peter ever since their final encounter, and it looks as though she was about to succeed through Alex when she makes a few mistakes, and one marks her as a criminal in Neverland..... please r
1. Prolouge: Peter's Rejection

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My Darling readers (heh): I hope you enjoy my story, I'm trying my hand at something slightly more romantic, but don't worry; it won't get too sappy. Just a teenager's difficulties, and then some. You'll see ;) Thanks so much for reading my story, please give me reviews!  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the story Peter Pan or any of the ideas from it. Those belong to the wonderful people that made it into a movie (an amazing movie that I've seen 3 times so far) and of course, J.M. Barrie, whose book really gave me a better perspective on the entire story.  
  
Prologue: Peter's Rejection  
  
Wendy was the only member of the Darling household that hadn't lost hope in Peter's return. "He won't come back," the Lost boys kept telling her sagely. "It's just how he is, you know. We're growing up now and he'll have found new adventures." But Wendy just smiled at them and disregarded their words.  
  
The Lost boys were turning into quite civilized gentlemen. All were enrolled in school except the Twins, who would be home-schooled by Mrs. Darling until the Darlings could afford to send them off as well. Once quite wild ruffians, they had settled down to life in London and, though not quite as respectful of Mr. Darling and his business-like, calculating ways, they adored their mother and hung on her every word.  
  
In fact, it seemed that everyone, including John and Michael, was growing up quite satisfactorily. except Wendy.  
  
She sat at the window seat in her room, staring out the window. It was open and a spring breeze brushed through her long, golden hair and made her squint her soft blue eyes. "Peter," she whispered, scanning the night sky. "Come back, Peter. Please don't forget me." She looked away after a moment, sighing, and went to bed.  
  
A few minutes later, the darkness was disturbed by the presence of a boy. Peter Pan stood in the window, regarding Wendy with a thoughtful expression. She had grown. like he had. "I won't forget you, Wendy," he said.  
  
Wendy sat up, startled. Her face lit up when she saw him, his body reflected in the moonlight. She jumped out of bed and rushed to him. "Oh Peter!" she cried. "I knew you'd come back, I just knew it! I've waited for you every single night and the Lost boys said you wouldn't come, but I knew you would, I told them you said you wouldn't forget me. They didn't believe me, of course, they thought it was rubbish, of course..."  
  
He put a finger to her lips and her words ceased as she looked into his dancing sea-colored eyes, eyes she had not seen in a long time. He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. Her heart fluttered in her chest and her bedroom blurred before her; she felt a lightness pressing through her.  
  
"Girls talk too much," he joked a moment later, jumping to the floor beside her and bowing, as though nothing had passed between them.  
  
Wendy nearly forgot her manners; as soon as she had finished curtseying, she said with much dismay, "Peter, you've grown!"  
  
"Yes," he said uncertainly.  
  
"Why?" she inquired, not seeing that he didn't want to talk about it.  
  
Peter shrugged, and then sighed. "I spend more time here, in your world, than I do in the Neverland, Wendy. I...I can't find happiness there like I could before. And, the more I come...the more I grow up."  
  
"Well, everyone must grow up sooner or later," Wendy responded matter-of- factly.  
  
She saw his expression harden slightly. "Well, I will not grow up!" he said vehemently, and his voice reverberated around the room. Wendy stepped back. Peter saw that he had startled her and put a hand on her shoulder. She met his eyes questioningly. "Wendy, I've been coming here too much. I must go back to the Neverland before I lose it entirely. I came to you to say goodbye."  
  
"Goodbye? Peter...would you ever consider staying here, with me, and John and Michael, and the Lost boys?" There was a pleading note in her voice and she put a hand over his own, both of them still resting on her shoulder.  
  
"Stay and grow up? Never!" He backed away to the window.  
  
Her heart in her eyes, Wendy implored, "But...won't you miss us?"  
  
"I shall remember you," he responded curtly.  
  
"But Peter, that's not the same! I'll never see you again! And we won't be able to have adventures together." He was frowning, wondering where the conversation was going.  
  
"Peter," Wendy whispered, looking at the ground. "I love you."  
  
"Love?" Peter said quietly, and Wendy looked up, surprised by the harsh tone in his voice. He crossed the distance between them in a moment and was looking her directly in the eye. "I do not love anyone! You can't make me love!" He turned his back on her and hovered upward to stand on the window seat.  
  
Tears were filling Wendy's eyes now. "Peter, I think you do love me," she whispered to him. "I think you do."  
  
"Then I will forget you!" he said, and flew away through the window.  
  
"I won't be forgotten!" Wendy screamed after him into the night air, running to the window and clambering up on to the window seat. She seized the closest thing to her-the necklace that hung about her neck with Peter's kiss upon it- and flung it into the night sky with all her rage and hurt.  
  
Wendy jumped down and threw herself upon her bed. She cried long into the night before her grieving heart was overtaken by her exhaustion, and then she fell into a fitful sleep.  
  
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Peter flew straight back to the Neverland, glaring at the world around him as he did, and even the Neverland reacted only very reluctantly to his presence. He settled himself in the house he had built after the lost boys had left. "I won't love. You can't make me love anybody!" he shouted at the walls around him. But, in his sleep, he cried out only one word: "Wendy!"  
  
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First chapter is coming, it'll be a jump in time. I know the first one was kind of the same theme as a lot of other peoples' stories, but don't worry, it'll get more original soon enough. Keep reading! 


	2. One year later

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My Darling readers: Here's the second chapter!! This one is a jump in time, just like I promised, and Wendy faces some conflicting emotions. Hope it's not too sappy for ya, I tried to make it as straightforward as possible. Please read and review and enjoy : )  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the story Peter Pan or any of the ideas from it. Those belong to the wonderful people that made it into a movie (an amazing movie that I've seen 3 times so far) and of course, J.M. Barrie, whose book really gave me a better perspective on the entire story.  
  
Star and Glade, and Hallelujah89: Thanks so much for the kind reviews, I hope you guys keep reading : )  
  
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Chapter 1: One year later.  
  
Wendy glanced around the corner of the kitchen, watching her mother kneading bread and humming carols. Grinning to herself, the sixteen-year old eased over to the laundry room, keeping to the right side of the hallway so the floor wouldn't creak beneath her weight. She opened the side door softly, slipped on her sneakers, and escaped into the late afternoon sunlight.  
  
"Wendy!" someone shouted after she had run nearly a block. She stopped, then her face lit up in a grin when she saw who had hailed her.  
  
Alex Davidson extended a hand down to her from the tree he was sitting in. She let him help her climb up and straddled a branch beside him, dressed in jeans and an old T-shirt that she had found in the corner of her closet. Alex grinned at her with those gorgeous, mischievously bright green eyes. His smooth brown hair hung nearly to his shoulders; bangs hovered in wisps around his face, giving him an even more stunning appearance. He was five inches taller than Wendy, which all her friends told her was a perfect height difference, and he was strong. She could feel the muscles of his arm as she leaned against him to get her balance.  
  
"Sneak out?" he asked, his voice deep and kind but also filled with the same sense of mischief as his eyes. That mischief was the one thing about Alex Davidson that Wendy did not quite trust, though all the other girls liked to think of him as a "bad boy". She thought it seemed like Alex was laughing off the crimes and concerns of other people, and for a fleeting moment, she felt guilty about sneaking out.  
  
"Yeah," she replied nonchalantly. She leaned back against the branch, looking at the sidewalk from their lofty post in one of the Baptist church's strong elms. "So who're we pegging?" she asked curiously. She hadn't failed to notice the bucket of water balloons balanced between the tree trunk and a branch that was next to Alex.  
  
"Marissa and Daniel," he replied, frowning with dislike. "They're such snobs. They keep making fun of David, that's the new kid at school, just because he garbles his English."  
  
Wendy knew whom he meant and nodded agreement. Everyone agreed with Alex; he was confident in all he said, his eyes seemed to look right into people in a way that told them he could be trusted.  
  
The church bells rang out five times. Wendy winced; she'd been gone twenty minutes and she'd have to be back for dinnertime. The church doors opened a moment later and a bunch of teenagers flooded out, fresh from choir practice and chatting animatedly with one another.  
  
Marissa and Daniel walked a little behind the others, holding hands and laughing together over something. Both were dressed in their best Sunday clothes; it was an opportunity that couldn't be missed.  
  
Alex handed her a water balloon and winked. She had to stifle a laugh at the fun in his eyes. A thrill of excitement rushed in her veins. "Bombs away!" he cried softly, and the water balloons fell, soaking their targets.  
  
Marissa screamed and David pulled her behind him, as though expecting another attack. "My blouse!" Marissa was yelling. All the rest of the kids had heard the commotion and came running back.  
  
In the melee they had created, Alex and Wendy let themselves down and left the scene, unnoticed by the choir group.  
  
A few houses from Wendy's, they both collapsed in laughter and held onto each other for support. After they'd managed to calm themselves somewhat, Alex looked at her. "I like you, Wendy Darling," he said sincerely.  
  
Wendy smiled, surprised. "I like you too, Alex," she responded.  
  
He took a step closer. Was he going to kiss her? Her heart was beginning to race and her eyes were growing more intense. Chills rose up and down her arms. He was so close now. She had never felt like this before. Yes, she had.  
  
"Wendy," he whispered, and leaned forward, his mint-scented breath falling across her face.  
  
"Peter," she whispered back, her eyes closing for the kiss.  
  
Alex jerked away and stepped back from her in surprise and reproach. "Peter?"  
  
"What?" Wendy repeated, confused.  
  
"You said Peter."  
  
"I...I did?"  
  
He ran a hand through his hair in the way that made girls' hearts melt so often, except now he was doing it in anger, and Wendy felt chagrined. "I don't know what game you're playing at, Wendy Darling. I really like you but you need to decide what exactly you want!" With that, he turned and stormed off down the sidewalk, leaving Wendy standing alone behind him.  
  
She turned, tears flooding her eyes, and dashed to her house. She crept in through the laundry door; her mother had started on the vegetables and was still humming that darned happy tune. Covering her ears, Wendy dashed down the hallway and ran up the steps to her room. She threw herself down on the window seat.  
  
Now that she had gotten to a place where she could allow herself to cry, the tears wouldn't come, and she was left cradling her pain inwardly instead.  
  
"What do I want?" she whispered brokenly to the room. "Alex," she replied a moment later, and she admired the strength in her voice. Of course she wanted him. She had not seen Peter Pan in over a year, not since he had returned to her and flatly rejected her love for him.  
  
She touched the spot on her neck where his kiss had hung for so long and found herself wishing, almost instinctively, that she hadn't thrown it at him on his departure. But that was foolishness; Peter did not love her, nor would he come back to her. And she...she did not love him.  
  
"I don't love you, Peter Pan!" she shouted at her dresser. "I hate you!" she yelled at her bed, kicking one of its posts. "Why won't you go away? You've wreaked my life; now get out of it! Get out of my mind, Peter Pan. I don't want to believe in you anymore. I don't want to believe in Neverland or magic. I don't want to believe in fairies!"  
  
Her voice was overtaken by tears; she threw herself on her bed and cried herself to sleep.  
  
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Next chapter's coming up! Hope this chapter made the story a bit more original, but I'm just getting started ;) Please keep reading! 


	3. Conflict and Disappearance

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My Darling readers: This chapter is really where the story begins; the rest was just prologue stuff. And don't worry; there's a reason for the stuff that happens in here, and it'll be made clearer in my next few chapters. Please read and review and enjoy : )  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the story Peter Pan or any of the ideas from it. Those belong to the wonderful people that made it into a movie (an amazing movie that I've seen 3 times so far) and of course, J.M. Barrie, whose book really gave me a better perspective on the entire story.  
  
Isabelle, TribeRules, young hitomi, and kay: Thanks so much for reviewing, hope you enjoy this chapter too! And kay, I was a little worried the water balloons would be too modern sounding, but I'm glad you liked them : )  
  
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Chapter Two: Conflict and Disappearance  
  
It was not until after they had settled into dinner that the Darlings noticed something amiss. "Wendy's gone!" Tootles cried suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her empty chair.  
  
Mrs. Darling sighed. "I'm afraid she hasn't left her room since you punished her, dear," she told Mr. Darling with a slightly reprimanding tone in her sweet, perceptive voice.  
  
"Serves her right!" Mr. Darling barked, reaching across the table for a roll. "If she's going to break windows in a church, in a church! with that ragamuffin scoundrel, she must be punished for it." He caught the look Mrs. Darling was giving him. "In a church, Mary!" he cried defensively.  
  
"It was an accident, dear," Mary Darling reminded him gently. "And Alex Davidson isn't such a scoundrel. I had him over for tea; he was very well mannered. You may think less highly of him, dear," she continued and her voice grew slightly more disapproving, "because his father is your rival at work for that promotion you have been obsessing over of late."  
  
"No such thing at all, Mary!" Mr. Darling grabbed the corn bowl from under John's nose. The children exchanged knowing glances. They were all on the side of Mrs. Darling, of course, not necessarily because she was right but because they adored her so implicitly that they agreed with every word she said. "I simply know that, before she met him, Wendy was quite a respectable girl. She never got in trouble for vandalism."  
  
"George," Mary reprimanded, and her sweet voice grew as hard and stern as it was able, "you could hardly call an out of control game and a few broken windows an act of vandalism. Besides, before Wendy met Alex, she was so depressed and lonesome that I just didn't know what to do with her."  
  
"Lonesome, in this house?" Mr. Darling muttered derisively. The Lost boys and John and Michael, sensing an offense to them, clenched their hands into fists beneath the table. But, before anyone could say something more, the telephone rang and Mrs. Darling gladly rose to answer it.  
  
"Mrs. Caral, how nice to speak...Oh dear, how awful! Well, I can assure you that my Wendy was not involved...Your daughter Marissa saw her? That's quite impossible, she has been confined to her room all day...Yes I'm quite sure...Good day, Mrs. Caral." Mrs. Darling hung up, a forced smile on her face. George had already gone back to the evening paper.  
  
Dinner went back to normal.  
  
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Wendy rolled over in bed and opened her eyes. It was dark outside. The clock in the hall chimed half past the hour but she wasn't quite sure what the hour was. The teenager yawned and dug her fists into her eyes. She was going to have to call Alex in the morning and apologize.  
  
She sighed into the darkness. "Peter, I'm sorry I want to forget you," she whispered, barely conscious of it. "I'm sorry."  
  
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Outside her window, a tall boy hovered, a stern expression on his face. It seemed that the apparent age he was gaining, although he had not returned to London in a year's time, was also bringing a deal of maturity with it. In the darkness, several grim shapes hovered and swooped around him. The fairies had turned off their little lights for this grim task, and all of them were flitting back and forth in anxiety and barely-contained anger.  
  
"Let's just kill her," one of them had suggested on the way from Neverland.  
  
Peter had frowned at the fairy that had spoken and replied, "We cannot kill her!" He had lowered his voice somewhat, remembering what sort of a mission it was, and had added, "She is needed to undo what she has caused."  
  
Now, deciding Wendy had fallen asleep again, the boy stole quietly into the room and crept to the closed door. Peter put his ear against it for a moment; satisfied by the silence that met him, he flicked the bolt across and turned back to see the fairies' progress upon Wendy.  
  
The sleeping girl, still wrapped inside a quilt that Mrs. Darling herself had sewn, was held three feet above the bed by twenty madly fluttering fairies. The fairies were struggling to keep their laughter inside; it was a very solemn affair, to be sure, but they could not help feeling very clever and very sneaky.  
  
"Through the window and back to Neverland!" Peter ordered, and led the way out of the room through the still-open window. The fairies followed him, their wings beating quick and sure; they were small but they were quite strong for their size, and it was an easy matter to follow Peter through while carrying Wendy, even when she rolled over in her sleep.  
  
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Next chapter's coming along, there won't be much in the way of explanation just yet, I'm afraid, but don't worry, everything will fall together in its own time ; ) There's another main character that I don't want to lose quite yet that may play a role in what's coming. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please keep reading! 


	4. A Hullabaloo

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My Darling readers: Another chapter, come and gone. This one adds a little twist in the capture of Wendy; I couldn't just leave one of the main characters behind, after all ; ) You'll also get a side dish of foreshadowing to go along with all the action. Hope you all like this one, please read and review and enjoy : )  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the story Peter Pan or any of the ideas from it. Those belong to the wonderful people that made it into a movie (an amazing movie that I've seen 3 times so far) and of course, J.M. Barrie, whose book really gave me a better perspective on the entire story.  
  
Melilot Took (a.k.a. Marli): Hey, thanks for commenting : ) Yeah, I want to try writing one, I need an idea. Of course it'll star the best character, Pippin ; )  
  
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Chapter Three: A Hullabaloo  
  
There was something, however, that Peter had not thought of in their hastily plotted capture...  
  
The clock struck midnight. The houses were dark and the sidewalks were devoid of people...except one. Alex Davidson, hands in his pockets and bundled in a black leather jacket, walked determinedly along, his expression set, his mind replaying the scene with Wendy as he went. Why had he overreacted like that? She had called him Peter but he hadn't given her a chance to explain. Perhaps one of her brothers had taken ill and she was worried about him; she certainly had enough brothers.  
  
Convinced something like this must be the case, for Wendy had clearly wanted to kiss him and must therefore feel something for him, Alex set his eyes with even more resolve toward her house as he turned onto her street.  
  
The clock had stopped striking. Alex walked faster, counting shadows as he went; he had told no one that he was leaving and London's streets were not the most friendly after dark. He had left a note but his parents would hopefully not awake to find that until after he got back and it was safely burned or flushed down the toilet.  
  
He squinted; was that Wendy's house? What was that hovering outside her window? He shook his head, trying to clear his sleep-blurred vision, and when he looked again, it was gone.  
  
"I'm seeing things," he muttered.  
  
Two houses away, he felt something fly past his ear. He jumped and reached upward; his hand brushed something in the dark. There was a light yet harsh sound of clanging bells. Squinting in the night, Alex was able to see a small creature whisk off down the street. He shook his head again. "Strange bird," he muttered. Strange bird indeed.  
  
He reached the front lawn of Wendy's house and stole across it, hiding behind a tree that was closer to her window. Pulling a small rock from his pocket, he tossed it in the air a few times, experimenting with its weight and his own strength. He did not want to shatter her window, after all. He could not see that it was open already in the dark night or everyone might have been spared the commotion of what happened next.  
  
Alex threw the rock with perfect precision, squarely toward the center of Wendy's windowpane, at the exact moment that Peter Pan, intent upon their silent getaway, came flying unawares through the window.  
  
The little fairy that had been keeping guard and had brushed past Alex's ear, had just managed to push her way through the fairies crowding around the window. She cried out, "Peter, look out!" but she was too late.  
  
The rock connected squarely with Peter's forehead. He somersaulted in the air and began to fall in a wild, diagonal angle. He managed to get his bearings, recover, and put on a burst of speed...right through the neighbor's lamppost.  
  
Alex jumped up as shards flew everywhere. "Hey! Hey, you! Just what..." But now he had spotted the sleeping Wendy, floating as though in midair, dressed only in her white cotton nightgown and wrapped in a large, flowered quilt. Her brown hair fell across her face, matted still from tears. "Wendy!" he cried, running beneath her as though expecting her to fall. "Wendy!"  
  
Lights were flickering on in the windows of the houses around them. Peter, seeing Alex's distraction, used the butt of the knife to knock the young man out mid-yell. "Terribly sorry," he whispered, easily lifting the unconscious Alex behind one of the Darlings' bushes alongside their house. "You'll be fine; the Darlings wont mind," Peter told him, to reassure himself more than anyone. Then he signaled to the fairies and they swooped off into the night.  
  
Neighbors were peeking out windows and fetching kitchen knives in their alarm. The man across the street and two houses down slammed his front door back on the hinges, wielding a radio that was blaring Oldies music from both speakers. "What's all the hullabaloo?" he yelled, clearly drunk, over the steady beat of classical rock.  
  
"Merv!" most of the neighbors peering into the street cried out collectively, and they retreated back into their houses. Merv was the street drunk, as it were; it seemed he had the neighborhood up half the night at least once a week with his loud, exuberant antics. They all knew, however, that his wife, Darcie, was having quite a hard time of it managing their affairs and that her son had passed away recently, and so they did not complain of it to the city hall, but merely contented themselves with yelling at Merv whenever they had the chance.  
  
The Darlings were still standing in the door, watching the neighbors retreating back into their houses and looking at the lamppost that had shattered with dry expressions. Mr. Darling took the bread knife from beneath his cloak and handed it back to Mrs. Darling with a wry smile.  
  
"At least it wasn't one of our kids," he commented as he locked the front door.  
  
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Peter carried Wendy as they crossed the ocean; she curled up in his arms, still sleeping peacefully. He looked down at her and a tender expression flitted across his face. No! He reminded himself pointedly that she was a criminal, that she was the cause of all the problems that were erupting in Neverland. He had every right to be angry with her and no right at all to feel anything, especially after she had asked him about love. Love! How could she ever expect him to feel something like that? It was such a complicated emotion, such a grown-up emotion, that he did not even wish to think of it.  
  
Instead, he thought of his actions back at Wendy's house. The people that had woken up had nearly spotted them; it was very good that they had been looking out at the street and not upward into the skies. Peter spotted Eyril, the little fairy that had tried to alert him of Alex's presence before he had left the house, and beckoned her to him. She flew eagerly near his face and he whispered,  
  
"Eyril, please go back to Wendy's house and check on the boy that I hit. Be sure that he is all right."  
  
She nodded her consent, feeling quite important indeed, and whirled around to fly back the way she had come, her head held high. Some of the fairies watched her departure; most rolled their eyes. They knew that Peter had a special fondness for her, and it wasn't because she was Princess Tinkerbell's cousin either. She had a speaking impediment, so that, when she spoke their language, her words were slurred and heavy. However, she was also able to manipulate her voice and speak some of the human words clearly enough to be understood. Thus Peter Pan sent her on all sorts of missions, especially when dealing with the children that had just come to Neverland and had not been exposed to the fairies' language, and took quite a liking to her.  
  
They continued to fly towards the second star to the right, following Peter, not noticing the way he was looking at Wendy as they crossed the silent ocean beneath them and left behind the humble, sleeping city of London.  
  
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Hope you all liked it!! Sorry it didn't hold much information for ya' about Wendy's capture, there'll be some of that in the next chapters, and some more about Alex too ; ) 


	5. Error in the Ways of Magic

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My Darling readers: It's been ages since I've updated!! But here it is, a bit more explanation about what happens to Alex and the fairy Eyril, and I've added what one might consider a slightly humorous twist in here as well ; )  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the story Peter Pan or any of the ideas from it. Those belong to the wonderful people that made it into a movie (an amazing movie that I've seen 3 times so far) and of course, J.M. Barrie, whose book really gave me a better perspective on the entire story.  
  
ashley: thanks for commenting, I hope you like this chapter too : )  
  
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Chapter Four: Error in the Ways of Magic  
  
Alex woke a little while later, covered in brush and twigs, suffering from a splitting headache. He opened his eyes and sat up, a hand to his head. "Where am I?" he groaned. He saw it was nighttime and instantly lowered his voice. Apparently he was in someone's yard.  
  
He stood and retreated to the sidewalk. It was Wendy's house. "Wendy!" he cried. They had carried her off! Who? His mind asked, and he pressed both palms against his temples as hard as he could, trying to remember. "The boy!" he cried to no one in particular. The boy had kidnapped her! She had been...flying? He rubbed his eyes. It was clearly turning into a long night.  
  
He sighed and leaned against the Darlings' mailbox, closing his eyes and trying to sort out what he had seen...or what he thought he had seen. He knew he ought to alert the Darlings immediately if something had happened to their daughter. He was unsure of what he had seen but positively confident that the Darlings, at least Mr. Darling, did not have very much liking for him as it was, however.  
  
Ah, but poor Wendy! She was so pretty and so much fun; she gave him excitement just by entering the same room. He remembered her laughter, the way she had looked after they had pegged Marissa and Daniel with water balloons. She had been so happy, so much more confident and content than the depressing, heart-broken child he had met a few months short of a year ago.  
  
Alex ran a hand through his short, dark locks, and turned to approach her front door with a determined expression upon his face. He wasn't going to let anyone hurt Wendy, fictitious characters from his imagination or not. Unfortunately, he had not noticed that, since he had started thinking about Wendy, he had risen a little with each surge of happy memory. And that had been quite a lot of surges.  
  
He was level with Wendy's open window. Alex let out a yell and began to fall. He managed to grab and grip the rain gutter outside Wendy's window, more by reflex than anything else, before the shock had fully overtaken him. The realization that he had been flying erased any happy memories with Wendy and replaced them with panic and terror, and a bit of shame. How would he ever explain this one?  
  
Alex blinked and looked up at the stars in between his straining arms. That strange sound of tinkling bells...where had he heard it before? It was 1:20; he could easily see his watch, even in the dim gloom of night. There should not be any clocks going off at 1:20 a.m.  
  
A small, winged lady hovered in front of his face, between him and the edge of the house. She was making the bell noises like crazy and her arms were waving wildly. It seemed almost as though she were trying to tell him something.  
  
The young man's first thought as he stared at her in non-comprehension, besides that he was going insane, was that he should let go of the gutter. If he fell the distance, he might slam into the ground and wake up from this strange dream safely tucked into bed. He had almost convinced his fingers to unfreeze from the terror that still held their grip when the fairy stopped chattering, sighed very heavily, and opened her tiny mouth wide.  
  
"Al...ses...Aleses..." she said, very slowly and carefully.  
  
Alex frowned. "Alex?" he supplied. He wondered how she knew his name but then remembered that it was embroidered on his sweatshirt.  
  
She nodded vigorously, then pointed to the window. Again, she opened her mouth and concentrated on her pronunciation. "Wandie," she said, then let out a stream of words in her natural language, as though frustrated with this slow and seemingly insufficient means of communication.  
  
"Wendy! Where is she?" Again, he nearly fell. The gutter was beginning to creak under the strain. Alex mentally urged the fairy to hurry.  
  
"Pie-tar...Peter...tay-kah...Wandie..."  
  
"A guy named Peter has her?" Alex repeated angrily, his hands clenching even tighter around the storm gutter now. He held the fairy with his gaze; the intensity in his eyes kept her from flying off, though she was beginning to become worried from this sudden display of anger. Peter certainly wouldn't have done it if it hadn't been justified, taking Wendy that is. Oh no, that girl deserved whatever she got. "Where are they now?" A screw popped out of the gutter beside Alex's finger but he did not notice it, and his ears did not pick up its impact against the ground because it fell into a bush.  
  
The fairy sighed again. Sighing opened her mouth wider and it was proving to be an effective stress-reliever. "Fay-rays," she said. "Nava... land."  
  
"Fairies in Navaland?" He wanted to grab her and shake her, but he forced himself to keep his voice level. This was, after all, the one person...being... that knew where Wendy was. And besides, he wasn't in much of a position to grab and shake anybody. "But where is he taking her?" Alex demanded.  
  
Now it was the fairy's turn to be annoyed. Hadn't she just explained this very specifically? "Navaland!" she cried, focusing on this one word, forming it with her tongue carefully. "Neverland!"  
  
Alex blinked. "Wendy's Neverland?" he repeated doubtfully. Just then, the gutter snapped in his hands.  
  
The fairy, who was, of course, Eyril, cried out in surprise and flew down after him, scattering fairy dust through the air. Her light came back on as she did so, but she didn't notice nor care; the fairy dust would only work if the boy thought of something happy. And he obviously didn't realize that.  
  
Alex hit the tree that he had been hiding behind. He fell down through the branches, feeling them grabbing at his clothes. He was trying to yell but his own panic and fear kept stealing his breath away in pants and gasps. Just as he was nearly free of the tree, he was bumped backward by a large branch and his head slammed hard into the trunk. He fell the remaining few feet to the ground in front of Wendy's house in unconsciousness.  
  
Eyril, feeling quite ashamed of herself and worried so much that she could hardly fly, swooped down and landed on his chest. "Alex!" she whispered; she had gotten the pronunciation of his name right when he had said it to her. "Alex!" She nudged his chest with her foot through the sweatshirt, then jumped up and down. One of her little feet got caught in the folds of fabric and she stumbled for a moment.  
  
"Peter won't be happy about this," she told herself inwardly, pointing her finger at the boy's head after a slight hesitation.  
  
Alex awoke with a jerk; his eyes popped open and he jumped up, sending Eyril flying into the grass with an irritated squawk. She jumped up and flew to hover at eye level, yelling at him in the fairies' language so that he blinked and frowned at her.  
  
"Are you real?" he asked, his voice uncertain and his expression rather dazed.  
  
Fairly indignant, she nodded furiously. "Of course!" she spluttered in English.  
  
"Oh," he said, then looked around. "Where am I?" He looked down at himself. "And who's Alex?"  
  
The fairly frowned. "Yoo-uu. you are Alex."  
  
"No I'm not." His frown grew and he scratched his head. "Or maybe I am. I can't remember my name. But I'm pretty sure it's not Alex." He looked around. "What am I doing here, anyway?"  
  
Eyril groaned inwardly and flew a slow circle in realization and dread. She buried her head in her arms, tears sparkling in her eyes, and slowly dipped down toward the ground. Alex watched her, bewildered and feeling slightly disoriented, still frowning deeply. His head was pounding and he wasn't sure where he was. He tried to remember...but there was nothing there. "Fairy?" he said. "What's your name?"  
  
But she wasn't listening. "I can't believe this!" she said to herself, and she did not notice that she was speaking English, and speaking it perfectly at that. "I can't believe I altered his memory! That's not supposed to happen! I should have known better, I am rather new at directing my magic..." She sighed and turned back to him. "Alex," she said, "would you like to take a trip?"  
  
"A trip to find Wendy?" Alex had been searching his memory and all he could see were blurs of people and places that he must have seen and visited. He couldn't remember any details about his life...until the name Wendy popped into his mind with the strength of a 500-watt light bulb switched on in pure darkness.  
  
Eyril stopped falling, did a little flip and whooped with joy. "Yes! Wandie, you remember!"  
  
"Who's Wendy?"  
  
The fairy stopped mid-whoop and sighed again. For the second time since midnight, while standing in the front yard of the Darling house, someone thought that it was going to be a very long night.  
  
....................................  
  
Yeah, I know it's kind of strange that Mr. and Mrs. Darling didn't wake up while all of this was happening, but their room happens to be located on the opposite side of the house, and the Lost Boys, who shall be addressed in a couple of chapters, will play their own role in the discovery of what happened. Look for more about Wendy and Peter in the upcoming chapters, and a full explanation of what in Neverland is going on ; ) 


End file.
